Danse Macabre
by Guardian of Ice
Summary: Three girls wander into the woods, unknowingly playing into Ramon Salazar's territory. When one is captured, she meets someone thought to be dead... but death is more than a fallacy here... It is a privilege.
1. Danse Macabre

**Danse Macabre**

**A/N**: A little ficlet. Love it or hate it, here it is. I don't own Resident Evil. Period.

Takes place while Leon is doing his thing in RE4. Basically, it just means life's a bitch and then you die. But there are brief moments of light, here and there. Look hard for them, for they are precious.

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The Jeep rocked to and fro upon the rocky terrain, and the girls inside alternately squealed in fear and delight. All three were prepared for a very long, relaxing weekend in the mountains, and all were within varying levels of excitement. The driver, a spiky-haired blonde was practically bouncing in her seat, green eyes barely able to focus upon the road. The supposed campground they'd found on a tattered map in the nearest town was definitely close ahead, or at least, that's what the front passenger kept telling her. The girl in the backseat was the least thrilled, she being of larger size and not a fan of the 'great outdoors'. She didn't see what could be so great about it. Bugs, wild animals, and sun. Blech. What a pain. For her friends' sake, however, she had packed her bags and come along, because her friends were what kept her sane, and she the same for them. The three were an inseparable bunch, and had been for several years. This trip was meant to be their last for a while, since one was heading to grad school some four hundred miles from home, and another was joining the army. The only one not leaving was the redheaded backseat passenger.

As the Jeep sullied itself along the gravel road, the trees steadily became more dense, and Carol, the brunette in the front seat, began to point frantically into the distance, clapping her hands with excitement. "Look! I see lights up ahead! I think there are other campers!"

May, the driver, snickered and arched a brow in Carol's direction. "Think there'll be booze?"

The girl in the backseat smiled a little, and shook her head, raising her eyes from the book in her lap to stare out the windshield. May was still looking at Carol, and so failed to notice the flaming arrow that had parted the trees before them and was hurtling toward the car. Kori opened her mouth, but time seemed to slow to a sudden crawl. With that arrow came a flood of fear, and Kori could feel her heart about to leap from her chest as she fought a time rip to be able to warn her friends. She struggled to speak, and found that her mouth just could not work fast enough.

With a crash, the windshield imploded towards the three girls, and an arrow pierced the driver's chest with a sickening crunch. May's hands flew up from the steering wheel to her suddenly bleeding chest, her mouth and eyes wide with shock and agony. Carol screamed, but could do nothing else. There was no time for anything else, only enough time to take in the sight briefly before the Jeep, without a proper driver, slammed into a tree. There was a second sick crunch as Carol, who had not been wearing a seat belt, broke her arm and cheek upon the dashboard, and as Kori flew forward despite her seat belt and broke her nose. Both girls saw floating fields of stars, and Carol's eyes rolled up into her head as unconsciousness swiftly blanketed her.

Kori's head lolled backwards and she moaned softly; her heavy chest having been what kept her from breaking the rest of her face, she was lucky. She could feel the blood pouring from her nose and running down her throat, and she had to fight not to throw up. Suddenly, smoke filled the car, and Carol began to cough, slowly waking from her brief spell of blackness. Kori fumbled blindly for her seat belt, unfastened it, and forced the door open. She stumbled about for a moment, hands covering her crushed nose, and then ambled towards the Jeep again, reaching for the handle of Carol's door. As quickly as she could with slick, bloody fingers, she pulled the door open and looked down at Carol. Her arm just above the wrist was bleeding, badly, and Kori knew that the white that she saw poking through the mangled flesh must be bone. Quickly, Kori tugged at her sweater, and wrapped it around Carol's arm. Her friend howled in agony, and threw herself into Kori's arms. Kori held her tightly, closing her eyes tightly for a moment. Tears were fighting to blind her, but she refused to let them fall, wiping madly at her eyes with one arm and trying not to touch her nose.

Slowly, she raised her gaze to the inside of the car again, and from within it stared the dead eyes of her best friend. The arrow had extinguished itself thanks to May's blood, and now just smoked dully, the wood glowing faintly in several small spots. Kori's lip trembled and she choked back a sob, still cradling Carol in her arms. After a moment of silence, she heard in the distance a garbled shout, something that sounded like Spanish.

"Carol… C-Carol, we have to go.."

"No, no we can't go, we have to stay with May, she's going to need help and we have to stay, Kori, we can't just leave her like this, no-"

"Carol, May's…. she's dead."

Carol pulled away quickly, her face pale with shock. She had lost a lot of blood, and vaguely Kori wondered if she might be delirious. The brunette began to shake her head violently, spraying Kori with blood from her shattered cheek. Her mouth filled with blood, and she didn't seem to notice as it ran from the corners of her lips and onto her yellow blouse.

"No."

"Carol… please, don't.."

"I fucking said no. She's not dead and you're fucking lying to me…"

Kori dug her teeth into her lower lip, completely at a loss. She could either try and drag her friend with her and try to run with the probability that she would fight her, or she could leave her. Simple as that. There were no other options; she knew that when another arrow fell from the sky and landed a few feet away.

Carol turned and slunk back to the Jeep, and crawled back inside. She reached over with her good hand and stroked May's grey, chilling cheek. Her eyes were brimmed with tears, and they slid down her cheeks, making pale trails through the thick blood that had not yet stopped flowing from the hole in her face. It became obvious to Kori that Carol had made her decision for her. As slowly as she dared with how close she knew their attackers must be, she slid towards her friends, and leaned against the side of the Jeep, allowing a sob to escape her, raw and bitter.

She leaned into the car and brushed Carol's bangs from her eyes. Carol stared up at her like a frightened wild animal, her two blue eyes seeming very bright against the bruises that circled them. Slowly, Kori bent and kissed Carol's cheek, then tilted her head and kissed May's.

She knew she would not have another chance.

Slowly, Kori turned her back on the Jeep and began to head for the forest. From behind her, she heard a voice.

"You're… going for help.. aren't you?"

That voice was, and at the same time, was not Carol's. It was a dead, flat voice. The friend she knew had died only a few minutes ago, and this empty, confused shell was her replacement. Only a shell, she told herself.

"Yes, Carol…. I'm.. going for help. I'll… be right… back.."

Holding back another sob, Kori continued to walk into the woods.

She did not look back.

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Please review. And go read my other RE fic, it's quite delicious.


	2. Dissolution Tango

**Chapter Two: Dissolution Tango**

**A/N:** I still don't own RE, but damn, would I like the rights to Leon's ass. It is a NICE ass. Sorry it's so short, it just seemed a fitting end.

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Somewhere within the Salazar castle, Ramon had grown tired of watching Leon Kennedy, and found himself entertained with another security monitor. A threesome of girls had wandered into his territory, and in time, they seemed to have paid very dearly. One had been captured, but she was wounded quite badly, and so he had ordered her executed. A bore, really, she had been, anyway. The second was dead when they got there. 'A shame, too', he thought. 'One can never have too many followers, after all.' The third had wandered off into the forest. He would have her, soon, and in the meantime, he would decide which of his pets to test upon her. A good test subject is a sad thing to waste, after all, is it not?

Suddenly it came to him, and he giggled madly. It was too perfect. After all, was he not a genius?

He would use the newest of his little pets. A weak one, it was, but only because he had not allowed the egg to hatch yet. No, he had merely allowed his minions to… experiment. He was to be a fine Garrador, once the testing was complete.

It was the ultimate price to pay for trespassing and thievery.

Salazar grinned maliciously, and then rose to find someone to pass along instructions to. He was, after all, much too important to dirty his hands with it.

He vanished into the darkness of his fortress, giggling with delight.

Sometime soon after, Kori, lost deep in the darkness of the forest, was clubbed roughly from behind, and a deeper darkness consumed her.

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Review, lovies. You know you want to, you're in love. Mwah. Oh, and, is she dead? Who knows?! Review and I shall update.


	3. Obliteration Waltz

**Chapter Three: Obliteration Waltz**

**A/N:** This is it. Short, sweet, to the point, and poetic. Please review, my lovelies. I didn't want to make it any more unrealistic by dragging it out, so here it is, simple and clean.

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When Kori opened her eyes, she felt as if her head would implode. There was a dull throbbing in the back of her skull, and she knew that she would not be able to stand up even if she were still being chased. Her vision was blurred and starry, and she could not make out much around her. Slowly, she closed her eyes and allowed her senses to come back to her. The ache in her head barely receded, though, and so she had to create a mantra within her mind to make the pain go away.

'Pain, pain, go away, come again some other day.. Gotta get the fuck out of here…'

And she repeated it to herself, sure that it would work, until she heard a grunt nearby. Her eyes snapped open, and for her size, she threw herself to her feet rather quickly. Her hazel eyes glittered in pain and terror, because one, she did not know where she was, and two, wherever she was, she was not alone. Nearby in the shadows lurked something, something far bigger than she. Despite how she tried, though, she could not make it out. All she could see was a hulking shape in the darkness, and she slunk back against a wall, trying to be as small and silent as she possibly could. Slowly, she glanced around to take in her surroundings.

She was in a deep pit, perhaps some fifty feet below a gaping hole through which shone the full moon, swollen and pregnant with light. Stars and clouds littered the sky around it, some of which winked at her as though they understood her predicament. It was a nearly circular pit, obviously manmade, and upon the walls every few feet were posted torches; all but in one small cave-like pit of blackness within which resided the unseen, grunting figure. Kori gasped upon seeing that the floor was littered with bear traps, and she was lucky not to have laid her arm in one while she was unconscious.

To her left some thirty feet was a thick steel door, which she knew deep in her heart would be locked. If she could manage to avoid the bear traps, though, perhaps she could find a way to use the looser cobblestones of the walls and climb out, she thought to herself. It was chilly down here, and she wrapped her bloody arms around her torso in an attempt to keep herself warm. She had to decide what to do; she couldn't just sit here and wait for whatever was in the shadows to come for her. Slowly, she took a cautious step forward, angling her ankle to as not to place her foot into a trap.

From the shadows there was a shuffling sound, and then from the pit emerged a menacing, hulking figure. It was obviously male, but some grotesquely altered form of a man, wearing a pair of tattered pants, his upper half bare and scarred. From the tips of his eerily long hands emerged a set of four wicked talons, and they glittered as steel in the glow of the moonlight. His scraggly brown hair hung in his face, and despite the lingering darkness, she could see his glittering eyes beneath the curtain of hair.

Kori pressed her back against the wall, terror swelling once more in her chest. There was nowhere to run. She was trapped, and from the look in the creature's eyes, it was out for blood.

The tall being took a step towards her, raised its scarred face, and growled at her. As it came forward, she saw that with each step it took, its left ankle twisted at an obviously excruciating angle, and it crunched with each footfall. Attached to it was one of the rusted, ancient bear traps that littered the ground. Slowly, it ambled toward her, somehow even in its drunken, pained swagger managing to avoid ending up stuck in another trap. He reached out and swiped his arms at her, trying to reach her, and Kori slunk back, making herself as small as she could. Within inches of reaching her, though, the mean-beast was impeded by a thick chain attached to the bear trap, and the other end nailed somewhere back in the darkness. He struggled against it for a moment, swung his arms at her a few more times, and then sunk to his knees, growling and yowling in pain and frustration. From beneath the curtain of hair came a heart-wrenching human sob that stopped Kori from preparing to run.

Against all better judgment, against all instinct, Kori slowly took a step forward.

The sobs tore at her, such human sounds coming from such a terrible, broken creature… She almost couldn't make herself move, she was so torn between fascination and terror. But her body betrayed her, and she took another careful set of steps towards him. Slowly, through his clawed fingers, the man-beast turned his eyes up to her. They were filled with bloody tears that streamed across his cheeks, his hands, and onto his chest. His eyes, she saw now, were large and brown, a very human color for something so terrifying. No longer was she paralyzed by her fear, though, and slowly, she knelt before the beast, eyes brimmed with tears of grief, exhaustion, pain, and empathy.

"I-I'm.. going to try and get you out… of that thing… ok-kay?"

He did not move, nor make any sort of sound. After a long moment of staring into the bleeding eyes of the creature, Kori slowly crawled around to his left side. Gently, tenderly, she played her hands over the trap. There was a hiss from the creature, but he made no move to strike her, so she continued to examine it, more so with her eyes than with her trembling fingers. Finally, her eyes met with the release latch, and she fumbled carefully with it for a moment, and finally it gave, and the trap released with an angry squeal. After a moment of regaining her composure, she pried the trap away from the creature's mangled leg, and threw it as far from her as she could. It sickened her that someone could do this to someone else, even someone such as this. Slowly, she wiped her bloodied hands upon her pants and rose, preparing for what she knew would be a chase she could not win.

One clawed hand approached her face, and she closed her eyes, preparing for a painful, bloody death. It did not, however, come. Instead, a warm, leathery hand brushed her cheek, and after a moment, she heard a voice, thick with Spanish accent. It was gruff, though, and she could tell its owner must be very dehydrated; his voice cracked when he spoke.

"Why… would you help me?"

Kori, completely taken aback, sat back hard on her butt, and the pain in her head suddenly came crashing down upon her in thick, furious waves that rolled against the inside of her skull with such force that she nearly lost consciousness. She placed her hands on either side of her head and hissed through her teeth, trying to bring her mantra to the surface; to overtake the pain with her stupid rhyme that she already loved to hate. After a moment of watching, the man-beast asked again.

"Why would you help me?"

Slowly, Kori raised her eyes up to stare into his weathered, slashed face. An answer died on her lips when she saw his bloody tears, still coursing down his cheeks. Slowly, on pure whim, she reached out and brushed them away.

"Who did this to you?"

Slowly, bitterly, the man smiled, and raised his hands to look at his claws.

"The same one who put you here, I think."

Kori shook her head. She couldn't, no, wouldn't believe it. She had just come for a vacation out of the country with her friends, and they couldn't be dead, they were somewhere waiting for her and this was just an awful, whimsical dream. It all came back to her in a sudden flash, and she wrapped her arms around herself, hunched over, and began to weep.

Slowly, the broken man rested a hand upon her back.

"They killed my friends and brought me here and I can't really be here, this isn't happening…"

Again, he smiled, a bitter, angry smile that showed off his newly acquired fangs.

"Tell me about it, my dear. The last thing I remember, I did not have these… things.. attached to me. I was a man. A handsome man, at that.."

The beast tried to laugh, but instead ended up coughing, and choking up a great deal of his own blood. He turned away for a moment, shaking and spasming. Kori watched in shock as blood all but poured between his fingers and made bright splotches in the dirt. After a moment, his coughs receded, and he regained himself enough to ask, "What is your name?"

Quietly, she responded, "My.. name is Kori."

With another heartbreaking smile, the creature replied, "And I… am Luis… To have been introduced.. under… better circumstances… would have been lovely."

Slowly. Kori nodded, a ghost of a smile pulling at her lips. Somewhere within her, realization was dawning. It was a bleak and bitter one, but it was, and she knew it to be, the truth. It was harsh and cruel, but it could only end one way. She did not know how many men were assembled here, how many were lurking, or if any were watching.

As if someone had heard her thoughts, a voice came from above., speaking angrily in Spanish. The bitter, jaded smile returned.

"They mean for me to kill you, I think. They haven't got control of me yet, I'm just…. Too strong for them. They will… come for you… and finish the job.."

Kori shook her head violently and began to cry again.

"No, no, I don't want to die like that… I don't know what they'll do to me.. Please, can't you get-"

Carefully, mindful of his claws, Luis rested a thin fingertip upon her lips and shook his head.

"Hush, little love. You must know… that there only one way out of here…"

It was as if the sun had turned on inside her as the sudden dawn of realization fully swept her. Suddenly, she felt calm. She was not afraid anymore, because at least she could go in the arms of someone who seemed so different from all the horrible things she'd seen here. Inside this terrible beast was a fragile, broken man, and all she wanted then was to be safe in his arms. She lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him, hardly caring as his claws sliced open the side of one arm. He hugged her back ferociously, just glad to be able to share one last moment of closeness with someone. He knew that for failing Salazar, the penalty would be death. Well, he would not give him the satisfaction. He had a plan.

Slowly, he pulled away, still holding the big girl who seemed so small now. He brushed away her tears and stared down into her eyes. In that moment, they each seemed to know everything about the other. Whether or not it was real, or whether it was their imaginations' last attempt at something beautiful, neither knew. All they knew then was each other, and they reveled in it until a banging came at the door.

"Are you ready, my dear?"

Kori nodded, bravery flaming in her eyes.

Quickly, without another word, Luis extended his claws into and through Kori's chest. She did not cry out, only uttered a soft 'oh', as though pleasantly surprised by something. A small bubble of blood formed on her lips, and then burst, and Luis bent his head to softly kiss her forehead, trying his best to keep his eyes locked onto hers; not to lose that bond with her for even the slightest moment.

When he heard the door open behind him, he grinned and turned his fist towards his own face, hoping deep down that Leon Kennedy was still giving the bastards hell. Still smiling, he extended his claws.

He saw a brilliant glitter of metal, heard the tearing of flesh, and then Luis Sera knew no more.

The pair lay crumpled together amongst the bear traps, amongst the Ganados, and amidst Ramon Salazar's bitter disappointment.

The last thing Kori saw was the look of rage upon the short man's face. It was beautiful; it was perfect.

The world faded to black, and there was no more.

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Sad, but touching, no? Reviews make me happy.


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